To Reign In Hell (WIP) - Closed

[stuartmartyn]

Most recent update: September 31st 2026 (Officially closing the WIP thread)

The empress of hell is gone and the contract that once bound you is broken. Uncover your past and decide the future of hell itself. Find the truth, claim hell’s throne or tear the system apart.

To Reign In Hell is an over 660,000-word interactive dark fantasy novel by Stuart Martyn. It’s entirely text-based, without graphics or sound effects, and fueled by the vast, unstoppable power of your imagination.

For as long as you can remember, hell has been under the thumb of its immortal empress. A brutal and stable order, enforced in part by the terrible power of the throne itself. You were one of countless demons trapped within that system.
Then the empress vanished.

With her disappearance, the contract binding you shattered, leaving you free for the first time in your existence. As hell descends into chaos, factions scramble to claim power. Archdemons gather armies and forge alliances in preparation for war. Revolutionaries seek to destroy the throne and take their revenge on hell’s aristocrats. A hidden conspiracy moves behind the scenes, manipulating events for their own purposes.

At the heart of the chaos lies the mystery of the missing empress. Was she slain? Did she abandon hell? Or did she somehow discover a way to escape it entirely?

Meanwhile heavenly agents infiltrate the underworld, ancient horrors stir in forgotten places and old bargains begin to unravel. In hell, power is never freely given. Every path and every choice demands sacrifice.
What kind of demon will you become?

• Play as male, female, or nonbinary. Befriend or romance demons of all genders.
• Fight for a better hell or show everyone just how cruel and monstrous a demon can be.
• Take your place among hell’s aristocracy, join an uprising, conspire with a mysterious cabal or chart your own course.
• Become a fearsome tyrant, an unlikely savior or anything in between.
• Argue before infernal courts, attend decadent soirées and break into hidden places.
• Lead armies into battle. Talk your enemies down. Assassinate from the shadows.
• Solve a murder. Commit your own.
• Make peace, reignite war or sustain the stalemate with heaven.
• Forge and shatter infernal bargains with angels, demons and stranger things.
• Take the throne of hell for yourself, grant it to another, smash everything or die trying.

The fate of hell rests in your claws.

The free demo is no longer available. Thank you to everyone who replied, posted and playtested! The full release should be in October. Wishlist the game on Steam here!

[Ronin_101]

I will watch your work with great interest and the demo was great

[tbs9090]

Just finished playing through and i love it can’t wait to see what happens next

[dorac]

So far, so good!

Possible bug: in 3_coil, *if clue_lykaeon_motive = true *set clue_value +5 appears twice. Maybe one of those was supposed to be lyk_wax .

[Jackrabbit]

Wow, I really enjoyed this! It’s rare games let you play evil in a way that isn’t brutal or murderhobo. I particularly enjoyed causing mayhem and ending up with good publicity due to my high silver tongue. This has the making of a very fun power fantasy! Or an angsty crusade, if you want to be boring about it

However, there were quite a few situations where my characters had no good option. Basically, situations that demanded physical skills (sneak/attack/endure etc). since I specialized in charm and wits, it meant I was stuck.

If that’s intentional, fair enough, but I might suggest nudging the player to not make doomed builds like I did? Perhaps, if a player chooses wits/silver tongue as their strong skill, the second strongest skill options will be limited to finesse and brutality. Basically hinting to players they want a well-rounded character.

[GenericUsername]

I liked it. Pretty big demo outta nowhere, I can see this getting some popularity. I don’t know if Romance is really a thing with how strangely built demons tend to be, but regardless of whether it is or isn’t I liked a lot of the flavor and choices. Learning who you were in the past was probably my favorite part, it’s got some pretty neat options-

I think the only check I had that was completely doomed for my build was the one to get Talos to work with me, since I had the opposite of each of the stats being tested, not that it mattered much in the end.

[Ronin_101]

Will F****** love heaven reaction about the Angel Origins Mc especially the zealot warrior and the Angel who tried to fix reality route when they become the Kings of Hell

[stuartmartyn]

Thank you, I have now removed the duplication and updated the game files.(lyx_wax only affects dialogue but not clue_value; you can get the lyx_wax clue without passing a stat check).

[stuartmartyn]

@Jackrabbit Presenting players with a lot of varied (but never mandatory) evil options for different builds/personalities was very important to me (you’re playing as demons in hell; evil options are a must) and it’s really heartening to hear someone appreciate it. I will say that murderhobo is very much an option at times, especially for high Brutality and Finesse builds.

It’s a good point about bad builds; I personally don’t mind players having no good option on some checks if they specialise as ‘jocks’ or ‘nerds’ (emphasis on some checks) but I am very conscious that some skills overlap more commonly (Silver Tongue and Decree being probably the worst build for this) and picking a social/mental skill and a more physical one is in some way optimal. I may tweak this down the line (when I adjust the difficulty of the checks) thank you.

@GenericUsername Thank you! Romance storylines are coming very soon now the MC has a better sense of themselves (and hopefully the player is a bit more grounded in the world). They will be somewhat odd, given the setting, but I can only hope they meet people’s expectations.

@Ronin_101 and @GenericUsername I’m very glad you liked the backstory options. I had a lot of fun writing them and the decision to leave this particular choice until chapter 4 was significant. My hope was that by having this key choice about the MC come later it would feel more meaningful and players would have a bit more of an understanding for what being a fallen angel or chthonian means in this setting before selecting those options.

[MIGSey]

I don’t often post something silly in regards to any WiPs I play…but for some reason, this actually made laugh to myself;

Imagine yourself a spymaster, who happens to also skilled in arms and a sword in hand. Its name ? Diplomacy

…That’s a hilarious oxymoron if I ever thought of by myself.

[Adam_Cay]

I don’t suppose you’d consider making the code visible? It could help people spot bugs

[stuartmartyn]

@Adam_Cay Code unlocked.

@MIGSey I had fun with some of the sword names. You can also kill with Kindness.

[wraithmaster20]

Could someone explain who committed the murder. I am confused

[Elemental]

It was the Masqued

[leo_not_leo]

Not sure how to tag spoilers, but The Masqued admits to it

[Elemental]

go to options that have the plus sign and scroll down and you will see the option to blur spoiler just put whatever text you want in it and it will blur it

[leo_not_leo]

Thanks

[leo_not_leo]

It seems like if you choose to hunt talos and then choose the cunning stat check and pass it loops back

[stuartmartyn]

It did. I have now fixed this and updated the public files accordingly. Huge thank you!

[Elemental]

@stuartmartyn Hey author out of curiousity why was Rangdan afraid of the MC, is it because they used to hang with the first demon or something